It’s Friday of the long Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I’m super thankful that my Cali BFF, The Pilates Chick, Sylvia Favela is here to celebrate it with me. I’m excited to take her to the mountains and show her the sites around Calgary and Banff. But guess what we’re both doing before we go have some fun?
Yep, we’re both getting our blogs ready with cool info for you…cuz we love you 😉
Here’s your Friday Q and A….
Question: Shawna, I can’t get a pull up, no matter how hard I try. Will I ever? Even the assisted pull up is a challenge. Any tips? Lisa
Answer: Lisa, The pull up is the ultimate challenge. Consider that less than 5% of the population can do one and you shouldn’t feel so badly. That being said, you CAN achieve a pull up with dedication and the right tricks. In the video, I remind you how to do the assisted pull up, or jump pull up. I know that some people have trouble holding their body weight, so consider assisting yourself on the way up and down.
Here’s another video of a band assisted pull up for you as well. It’s a great way to get support on both eccentric and concentric phases of the movement.
For more tips on how to improve your pull up power, head here.
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I also wanted to share an article from my friend Sue Heintze. It’s for the women in the group, but dudes, if you have a woman in your life, you should probably know this too if you want to be a good man to her…just saying. Also, she has a cool program but in less than 24 hours, the f.ree V.I.P. Coaching and the 10 Day Little Black Dress Diet bonuses will be removed from the Ideal Body Blueprint.
Are Your Hormones Making You Fat? By Sue Heintze
In today’s age of convenience, many women unknowingly suffer from a disorder known as ‘Estrogen Dominance’ which in addition to fat gain particularly around the stomach, hips and thighs, can cause other health conditions like:
- PMS
- Infertility
- PCOS
- Missed or irregular periods
- Swollen or Fibrocystic Breasts
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Allergies and Asthma
- Fibroids
- Mood Swings
- Magnesium deficiency
- Thyroid dysfunction
Now Estrogen is certainly not all bad – in fact as a woman it is a hormone we need.
Estrogen is responsible for secondary sexual characteristics like the development of breasts during puberty. It’s responsible for the natural widening of a woman’s hips to make any future child-birthing safer and easier for both mom and baby.
Estrogen even helps with the development of the female reproductive system. These are definitely positive functions that estrogen can deliver to any woman.
The problem occurs when your hormones become imbalanced and you experience estrogen overload, or Estrogen Dominance to be a little more technical.
Fortunately there AREseveral ways you can lower your Estrogen levels naturally. I’m going to share 2 of them with you today.
The first one is to replace any packaged food or drinks you currently eat with healthier, natural substitutes.
In our current hustle and bustle busy world, many of us tend to rely a lot on foods in packets and boxes.
Ultimately we suffer the consequences caused by these poor food choices, toxins, and addictive chemicals that food manufacturers sneak into most processed grocery store products.
Not only do these toxins add extra poundage to your waistline – all the extra“junk” poisons your system. Some of the chemicals they use actually mimic estrogenand act just like our natural hormones. This contributes significantly to today’s Estrogen Dominance epidemic.
Some of my favourite healthy food switches to help control excess estrogenare cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, bokchoy, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale.
These veggies have it all – high fibre, vitamins, antioxidants and phytochemicals that can lower cancer risk. They also contain indole 3-carbinol, an anti-estrogen. Crambene, another compound found in cruciferous vegetables, is known for its detoxifying effects against carcinogens.
I recommend you aim to include cruciferous vegetables at least every other day. Protect yourself from cancer while keeping your body lean!
Here’s something you do need to be aware of though – these vegetables are also known as ‘goitrogens’ and if eaten raw, can block thyroid function. Cooking minimizes the goitrogenic potential of these foods. So it’s best to cook these types of veggies lightly.
The other thing you can do to lower estrogen levels naturally is to exercise regularly!
If you carry excess body fat you are far more likely to suffer from estrogen dominance.
Your ovaries produce most of the estrogen in your body, but they can also synthesize it from fatty tissue, meaning the more fat you have, the more estrogen you produce.
So lowering your body fat through exercise definitely helps to control excess estrogen!
Estrogen dominance can also be caused indirectly from stress (who doesn’t suffer from that these days!)
Stress leads to the release of hormones like cortisol and insulin, both of which can lead to excess fat storage. So managing your stress levels is another way you can help balance your hormones, and a great way to reduce stress is through exercise.
So to keep your hormones happy you need to perform the right kind of exercise on a regular basis!
Be careful though asexcess physical activity can have a detrimental effect. If you are younger, over-training can cause problems with your fertility by bringing on irregular ovulation and menstrual cycles and too little estrogen can endanger bone health.
This is why a balanced exercise and diet regime is a necessity now, and into the future.
Dream, Believe, Achieve!
Sue Heintze
Check out her program Ideal Body Blueprint to see if it’s right for you.